By PHILIP MARCELO Associated Press
WESTFIELD, N.J. (AP) — Before there was “The Addams Family,” there was Westfield.
Cartoonist Charles Addams, who created the eccentric, fictional family, drew inspiration for his signature macabre style from the elegant Victorian homes, historic cemetery and other landmarks of his New Jersey hometown.
Today the affluent community, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of Manhattan, has embraced its ghoulish legacy, honoring its darkly humorous native son each October with AddamsFest.
Downtown storefront windows have been transformed into temporary canvases for seasonal scenes depicting Gomez, Morticia, Wednesday, Pugsley and the rest of the family.
Throughout the month, there are Addams-themed events, including an art exhibit, a music and beer festival, a masquerade ball and a competition among homeowners for spookiest front lawn display.
“Everyone really gets into it,” said resident Kelly Heuschkel, whose young daughter is dressing up, appropriately, as Wednesday Addams this Halloween. “I think people decorate more for Halloween here than they do for Christmas.”
Joy Fox was among the visitors surprised that such a seemingly picturesque town could have inspired something so morbid.
“It looks like a very nice suburb,” the Cleveland, Ohio, resident remarked as she passed by Addams’ childhood home one recent afternoon. “I grew up watching the ‘Addams Family.'”
AddamsFest predates latest ‘Addams Family’ revival
The monthlong festival, which is completing its ninth year, was launched when the town’s former mayor sought something uniquely Westfield for the town to celebrate.
Dawn Mackey, a former town councilor who helped found AddamsFest, admits that there was some initial skepticism when the idea of leaning into Addams’ lore was first floated.
“A lot of people didn’t even know he was from here,” she said.
But Mackey said she knew organizers had struck a chord when a visiting family once rattled off their three-stop Halloween itinerary to her: Salem, Massachusetts; Sleepy Hollow, New York, and Westfield.
“I felt like that was the moment,” she said.
Mackey said it was pure “serendipity” that the festival launched in 2018, the year before “The Addams Family” animated movie was released, followed by its sequel in 2021.
The hit Netflix series ” Wednesday,” focusing on the family’s dour, fiercely independent daughter, also helped introduce a new legion of fans to the frightful family.
Other Addams-related sites in town
Beyond the festival events, visitors can take in some of the town’s sights by foot. A self-guided heritage trail covers landmarks that informed Addams’ art.
At Addams’ colonial-style childhood home, a historic marker says his grandmother lived in the attic and is believed to be the inspiration for the fictional Grandmama Addams.
Nearby, along the street a young Addams likely walked to school, is a Victorian-era house that helped inspire the fictional family’s imposing, gothic abode. A miniature version of the family’s fictional mansion sits in the middle of a pond in the town center.
Farther along, there’s an old cemetery next to a white steeple church filled with tombstones dating to colonial times that officials say a young Addams frequented.
A historic movie theater with an old-time marquee hosts an art exhibit showcasing a selection of Addams’ work on loan from his family foundation, alongside related pieces from local artists.
An entire section of a barn wall has also been cut out and preserved in order to display a life-size skeleton drawing made by a young Addams.
“The entire barn was graffitied except for this piece,” Mackey explained. “It was as if decade after decade, teenagers who hung out in this barn still had a reverence, even though they didn’t know who drew this.”
Addams’ dark humor remains as relevant as ever
Mackey says Addams was ahead of his time, drawing strong female lead characters and quirky families that resonate generations later.
Addams spent most of his career as a cartoonist for The New Yorker magazine, which published many of his Addams family cartoons, including his very first, in 1938. He died in New York in 1988 at the age of 76.
At the Addams art exhibit, Mackey highlighted one piece depicting Wednesday and Pugsley waiting beside the fireplace for the arrival of Santa on Christmas. But instead of leaving out milk and cookies, the mischievous siblings are lighting a roaring fire to torch St. Nick as he comes down the chimney.
“Every wholesome town has secrets and a dark side. I think he saw that,” Mackey said of Addams. “To take the darkest parts of people and put a spin on it, that makes it funny instead of terrifying, and that’s what he did best.”